New Contract

woodmills1 · October 28, 2003, 03:20:07 PM

It is kinda funny you know. I decked up all of the old pine that I new had nails. I sharpened and set all of my old blades, I hate to set Ifin ya havent figgured that out yet. That was in the last two days along with lotsa doin things ina house with lovely Mrs. Wood. Get ready to start chunkin the naily stuff this mornin when I get the call. Could you make some 1/2x4x40" we don't care what it comes from stuff. Yes I say, what do ya pay? Eighten cents a piece. Well it don't take 30 seconds to say sure. I will cut my cheap/free stuff for over 20 cents per bd ft for cuttin, buttin I ainta gonna trim no edges. Sure, he says, bring us a sample. Made 320 pieces, after findin 12 nails easy and 9 nails expensive. Drive them over and he says I will take all you can make for the next few months. 8) 8) I ain'ta gonna gettin to be rich over this but willa bea payin some bills. :D :D :D

Captain · October 28, 2003, 03:32:04 PM

Hey Jim, are these folks making children's toys/puzzles from them??

woodmills1 · October 28, 2003, 03:34:45 PM

pallett repair.

;D 8)

Captain · October 28, 2003, 03:42:52 PM

Sounded like some folks that approached me here in MA last year....but they wanted to pay about 12 cents each for select pine, no knots, 42 inch pieces, 4 inches wide, 1/2 inch thick.
I said no thanks.

Captain

Kevin_H. · October 28, 2003, 04:28:22 PM

woodmills1,
We get about the same thing here, 19 cents a pc. for 1/2" x 3 5/8" x 40", but we do end trim to length.

The pallet place will take any kinda wood, You might ask them about stringers, we get to saw 1 1/8" x 3 5/8" x 48 also.

woodmills1 · October 28, 2003, 05:00:44 PM

I visited this place 3 weeks ago and found they do pallet repair only. They were not, empatically, interested in me at all. Since we live in a high dollar land area, things can change. The owner sold his prime industrial spot for i think big bucks, and moved to another. Now he is short of processing space but long on orders. Woodmills to the rescue.

Kevin_H. · October 28, 2003, 08:04:23 PM

Hey james when you get this going I would like to know how much 1/2 material you can get done in a day?

woodmills1 · October 29, 2003, 04:54:59 AM

it is raining today but I am gonna try it with some larger no nails logs

woodmills1 · October 30, 2003, 06:13:20 AM

So, it rained cats and dogs around an inch and a half. I started at 9:30 by unloading the slabs in the trailer from day before, then bucked and loaded some large lumpy pine. Decked the logs oiled track wiper, greased mill and replaced the outer air filter and had at it. No surprises, no nails just driving rain and by 4:00 I had 720 pieces made. Thats 480 bd ft loaded on truck ready to go. Like I said won't get rich with this but helps pay the bills and gets rid of the twisty lumpy stuff. There isnt much slb waste when your makin 1/2 x 4" material at 4 foot length.

Kevin_H. · October 31, 2003, 08:07:06 AM

Woodsie,
Are you bucking the log down to 4' before ya cut it?

You are right there is not much waste when you are cutting 1/2 material, typically our 10' logs go to 40" deck boards and our 8' and 10' stuff go to stringers.

It is a nice setup for us, we are free to cut as little or as much as we want, the pallet place may not see us for a couple of months during the busy summer, then when we slow down, we will start sending stuff again.

good luck

woodmills1 · November 01, 2003, 05:23:08 AM

I delivered the 720 pieces and have now cut 1000 more. I kinda got the routine down now. If the log is straight I trim a little off the ends to around 88 inches and then process the outside untill I get a three sided cant at 4,8,12, or 16 inches depending on the diameter. Then I flitch cut the last face untill it is flat. Flip back to the multiple of 4" and slice the big cant into 4x cants. Then stand them up, clamp them and take the chainsaw and cut nearly to the bottem in the center. Then slice at the 1/2" + 1/16 gotta concentrate to not lose count of the 16ths.

If the log is curved I will cut it into 40+ inches and basically do the same thing.

I am still using up the logs that have been lying around that I new had Iron so my production isin't quite where it should be, what with scanning and removing nails, and then hitting one now and again.

I was thinking that poplar would probably be a good source for this as I have a lot of 4 and 6 quater poplar that is air dried but doesn't sell very often, so I have resisted cutting any more. The customer said any wood so I will cut him some from poplar to see if he likes it.

woodmills1 · November 01, 2003, 06:05:23 AM

I was thinking that set works or accuset would really be a help for this kind of work. Sometimes I will bump right on the mark but other times its a little up and down.

Also the pallet company gave me two nice racks that fit in the back of my truck so I don't have as much trouble loading and they can unload easier and faster.

Kevin_H. · November 01, 2003, 05:46:13 PM

I guess we basicly do the same thing, we make a three sided log that is divisable by 3 5/8" and cut 2 or three cants out of it.

We stand them up and cut 1/2 material down til we hit 1 1/8" from the deck, the last pc we will make a stringer.

we have a 12" dewalt miter saw set up on a 24' deck that we use to cut the boards to length and bundle them in about pkg's of 300 bf.

The racks they gave you should make it a lot easier.

We did have a set up that ran the woodmizer as the break down saw, we would cut the cants 3 5/8" x 6" x tree length, we would us a 24" chop saw to cut it to length and run everything though a single head resaw with return, we ran this 5 days a week.

By the time we paid 3 full time guys, it really was not worth the headache.

woodmills1 · November 02, 2003, 01:57:33 PM

Remember I am just chumking the naily logs into this product. When they stopbeing full of iron, 6 more logs, I will make 4x cants from the good stuff and set them aside to process later. Today i had one that was so big I got 4 4x cants at like 19 inches. For that short time my production went way up. So thats the plan 4 4x cants on the mill removing 4/ 8 pieces per cut. 8)

woodmills1 · November 03, 2003, 08:58:07 AM

1800 pieces headed out the door for delivery, see the nifty loading racks?

Kevin_H. · November 03, 2003, 02:35:42 PM

Hey good looking truck too.

Sounds like you've got it down, I made a couple of racks to move my boards to the cut off saw. Next time I load up the trailer I will try to get a picture of it.

woodmills1 · November 04, 2003, 06:10:25 AM

86 one ton 4x owes me nothing bought in 88 for $10,500 has delivered over 500 cord of firewood plus thousand and thousands of feet of lumber. Also plowed municipal snow for 8 years. 56,000 miles three gas tanks and 3 oil pans, though it is time for doors and cab corners again. Hey the choke still sets. Bet the engine block rusts out before it quits runnin. :D :D

MrMoo · November 04, 2003, 06:46:45 AM

Woodmills,
Nice truck... like the lumber racks too.

We're not too far apart someday we should visit.
Mike

woodmills1 · November 04, 2003, 02:40:51 PM

Sure visit anytime, Thanksgiving is our next bonfire if your into that. We have sleeping room for 14 if you and the significant want to come and stay after a late fire night.

Jim_Rogers · November 05, 2003, 08:19:16 AM

Scale near Scale

When I have a lot of pieces to cut 1/2" thick a make up a scale:

Then I print this scale and tape it to a piece of cardboard with 2" wide clear packing tape (so that it's some what water proof).
And hang it on my sawmill near my sliding scale:

This way I can just look at the paper scale and see where I need to make my next cut.
I don't have to remember all the location or do any adding or subtracting in my head.
I find it easier, especially when you get interrupted by customers or any other reason to lose your place.

Jim

woodmills1 · November 05, 2003, 12:23:45 PM

Since I have been cutting at 1/2 + 1/16 what I really need is a scale the has a mark in between each of the woodmizer 4/4 marks.

Jim_Rogers · November 05, 2003, 01:50:34 PM

What I some times do is take a regular pencil and make a mark on my sliding scale where I intend to make my cuts. And put a symbol need to my marks like an arrow head, arrow tail, or some other symbol.
then you just cut at these symbols.
Jim

Tom · November 05, 2003, 02:10:24 PM

I have to try to keep most of that starting stuff in my head because I start at a different height every time I turn the cant or put on a new log. There are no "specifically same" places. I also cut 4/4, 5/4, 6/4 and 8/4 interchangeably as I progress downward through the cant. That's why I think in inches and eighths. Mentally I drop a inch and so-many little black marks. That way I'm reading the geometry of the scale not the numbers and it doesn't matter where I start or stop as long as I remember where I was.

4/4 is an inch and 1
5/4 is an inch and 3
6/4 is an inch and 5
8/4 is two and 1.........etc.

I can start at my target size and measure up to a starting point by using the same method.

For 5/4 I would start at 6 as an example and add 5 inches. Then I need to add 3 marks for each inch so add 15 little black marks and there I am. If I overshot the log then I do a pretend cut until I get inside of the log and send the blade through. This works if I am cutting only one size.

By thinking like this, I don't get confused by having to cut different sizes of boards. I may have to make a trim cut at the bottom but there is usually an excuse to do that anyway. You might turn the cant when there are three boards+ left to cut, take a trim cut to a known height and then cut to the bed.

woodmills1 · November 06, 2003, 04:59:19 AM

Yes I have been doing the 1/2 plus and minus 1/16 in my head and that works untill there is a distraction. Once I get out of the naily logs, it is amazing how many I have stored up I will be cutting 4.
4/4 down to a 4x4 or 4x6 cant, thats when I will do the 4" plus the number of 4/4 plus an eighth for each. I is pretty easy to get a routine. I am thinking of back when I worked in macine shops and used to get the rythem of the cutters to make a song in my head.